I got the idea to quill grass with ladybugs a few months ago when I was working on martisoare. Back then, I made a simple design suited for the small talismans knowing that at some point I would come back to this idea and create a framed project.

Quilled Grass Leaves Tutorial – Husking Technique

You will need a cork board and baking paper or parchment to prevent the paper strips from sticking to the paper where you’ll mark your guiding points. I drew them 1cm apart, but you can make them as far apart or as close as you want to.

I used 2mm wide strips, 2 shades of green for each leaf (120gsm combined with 80gsm). You will need very long paper strips, 40cm up to 80 cm, so glue 2-3 strips together before you start to weave them around the pins.

This quilling technique is called “husking”. Insert your first pin into the cork board and secure the paper strips by making a tiny loop. Insert the next pin and bring the paper strips around it, making sure to always add glue at the base of your first pin every time you come back to that point. Repeat the process until the desired grass leaf length is achieved.

Remove the pins and you’ll get something like this:

Add glue in the interior of the quilled element and then squeeze it between your fingers for around 10 seconds until the adhesive dries.

This is how it should like in the end:

The grass leaves length varies between 5cm – 9cm. Stick 2-3 layers on top of each other to add depth to your project. I really like how they look glued in tiny bunches!

You can use the comb technique to get these quilled shapes, I feel more comfortable working with the pins. This is how big they will turn out:

I mentioned in the tutorial about the comb method, but I am not very good at it. Probably because my comb is made of metal and it’s pretty heavy. You are right, the is no size limit when it comes to husking. 🙂